I used to enjoy listening to the song "Temperature" by Sean Paul until I took a closer listen to the lyrics. The last couple lines of the chorus are "Oh lord, and gal I got the right tactics to turn you on, and girl I wanna be the Papa, you can be the Mom, oh oh!" I enjoy suggestive lyrics as much as anyone, but the talk about actually conceiving a baby just nauseates me. I don't know why; perhaps it has something to do with my dislike of babies. The complete lyrics (or an approximation thereof) are at http://www.elyrics.net/read/s/sean-p...re-lyrics.html

I'm not sure Sean Paul is literally talking about conceiving a baby! It seems more like he's just being cheeky, like 'let's play mommy and daddy' as a euphemism for sex.

For me that song is Los Angeles by X. I think the racial slurs and offensive language is supposed to reflect the way living in Los Angeles damaged the mindset of the character in the song, but it still kind of bothers me to listen to it.

More of a personal interpretation, but I used to get very teary-eyed at Elton John's "Your Song" as it made me think of my daughter: you know, "how wonderful life is now you're in the world." But it only says "now" in the first instance of the chorus. Later I realized that the later instances of the chorus said "how wonderful life is while you're in the world," as if anticipating a time that the person won't be in the world. So I don't like to think about that in conjunction with my daughter any more.

Birthday by the Sugarcubes, the band Bjork was in before she went solo. It sounds great and I never listened to lyrics much. It turns out it's either about a five-year-old girl having a sexual relationship with an older man, or possibly just dreaming of doing so.

Quote:

Today Is A Birthday
They're Smoking Cigars
He's Got A Chain Of Flowers
And Sows A Bird In Her Knickers
Ohhh...

"It's a story about a love affair between a five year old girl, a secret and a man who lives next door. The song's called Birthday because it's his fiftieth birthday, but not many people can figure that out of the lyrics 'cos it's more about the atmosphere around it and how they touch. It's a tasteless pop song - not even that. A pop song - very unusual"

"I was always changing my mind about what the lyrics should be about. I had the atmosphere right from the start but not the facts. It finally ended up concentrating on this experience I remembered having as a little girl, among many other little girls' experirnces. It's like huge men, about fifty or so, affect little girls very erotically but nothing happens... nothing is done, just this very strong feeling. I picked on this subject to show that anything can affect you erotically; material, a tree, anything." -- Björk, about Birthday

Summertime or In the Summertime, by MungoJerry. "If her daddy's rich, take her out for a meal, if her daddy's poor, just do what you feel".

Funny, I always thought the line was "just do what she feels", but the lyrics sites don't seem to agree. (By the way, metrolyrics.com has a laughably inaccurate version of the lyrics. This version seems a lot closer.)

Sometimes when I go to learn a song so I can play it, I discover that the lyrics weren't quite as wonderful as I'd thought. One example is the Rolling Stones' "Child of the Moon". I still really like the song, but somehow it seemed that it was about more than just driving a highway at dawn in the rain.

The Cure's "Killing an Arab." It's an adaptation of the first chapter of Camus' "The Stranger", and it's really well-done. I'm a sucker for a dark story set to a happy beat, and this thing evokes the tone of the novel quite well. We listened to it in high school English, for Ford's sake.

But even though I know it's not a racist song, it's really hard not to feel like an asshole whilst rocking out to it.

Summertime or In the Summertime, by MungoJerry. "If her daddy's rich, take her out for a meal, if her daddy's poor, just do what you feel".

Eh? If the girl has money, do something that costs some money. If the girl has no money find something you can do that doesn't cost money.

To put an objectionable spin on it would require some odd mental contortions. IMO, or course.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PoorYorick

The classic example for me will always be "Alone Again (Naturally)" by Gilbert O'Sullivan, where a man laments his crappy life before jumping to his death, all to a snappy beat.

ETA: Although I admit I still liked the song even after learning the lyrics. I'm sick.

Nothing sick about it, unless any song about suicide is inherently sick. (Which I don't think is the case.) The lyrics are the best part of the song. Robert Christgau says, "...its tossed-off structure matches its casual, crucial equation of filial and romantic affection."

He lists the reasons for his sadness, but doesn't get bathetic. The bridge focuses on the world's problems rather than his own.
I love the casually devastating lines, Left standing in the lurch, at a church
Where people 're saying,
"My God that's tough, she stood him up.
No point in us remaining."

Eh? If the girl has money, do something that costs some money. If the girl has no money find something you can do that doesn't cost money.

To put an objectionable spin on it would require some odd mental contortions. IMO, or course.

MO varies, of course. To me it's pretty clear that that line refers to the idea that there are two types of girls, the type you want to court or marry (with rich daddies), and the type you just want to fool around with. You could read it another way, but like you, I feel it would require mental contortions to do so.

Yeah, if the girl's father is rich, she's worthy of being taken out and shown respect. If her daddy's poor, you can do whatever you want with her, she doesn't deserve to be taken to dinner or anything, she's just a cheap fuck.

I'm not getting that from the lyrics at all, and I went and looked them up.

I remember, when I was a young adult (the remake/duet was released in 1991, and I would have been all of 18), there was an immature joke making the circles that the song was actually called "Don't Let Your Son Go Down On Me."

While I'm not saying that this is true in Krokodil's case, it could certainly cause some misinterpretation of the meaning of the song.

No, the music was written by Taupin, the lyrics were written by Elton, as with all of their songs.

It's pretty clear, to me, that it's about a man who's fallen in love with another man who was unsure, then began to return the affections, then got scared.

I don't see it either. It's really ambiguous, and "in love, unsure, got scared" fits a bunch of my hetero relationships. I don't think the song is specifically gay or straight, it's just about a complicated love story, which is universal.

I used to enjoy listening to the song "Temperature" by Sean Paul until I took a closer listen to the lyrics. The last couple lines of the chorus are "Oh lord, and gal I got the right tactics to turn you on, and girl I wanna be the Papa, you can be the Mom, oh oh!" I enjoy suggestive lyrics as much as anyone, but the talk about actually conceiving a baby just nauseates me.

Funny, that same line is why I like this song, despite it not being my usual style of music. The first time I heard it then I expected Sean Paul to refer to the woman as a baby or little girl, as is fairly common in popular music. SykoSkotty mentioned Springsteen's "I'm On Fire", a good example of this, and I think Sean Paul even says something about "baby girls" early in this same song. But "I wanna be the Papa, you can be the Mom" suggests that both parties are adults and equals, which struck me as a refreshing change.

I don't think there's any deep or subtle meaning to this particular choice of phrasing, though. Like Electric Warrior, I think the intended meaning of the line is basically "Let's 'play house'...by which I mean 'have sex'." It seems unlikely that a man would be talking about actually wanting to impregnate a woman in this context.

Yeah, if the girl's father is rich, she's worthy of being taken out and shown respect. If her daddy's poor, you can do whatever you want with her, she doesn't deserve to be taken to dinner or anything, she's just a cheap fuck.

Maybe I'm just an innocent, but I think it's interesting that everyone apparently thinks that "do what you feel" means "fuck like jaded monkeys." To me, it meant that since you didn't have any money, you'd have to do something that didn't, you know, cost money. Didn't any of you guys ever go on a date when you were broke?

Yes, I went on plenty of dates that didn't involve spending a lot of money. Or any money. The man I almost married was chronically broke. He was an orphan, and working his way through college. We went to a lot of free events that the college offered, lectures and movies and whatever. The man I DID marry was also basically broke when we were dating, so we did things like visit the Water Gardens in the evening (back then the Gardens were well-maintained), which cost nothing but were a lot of fun.

The thing is, though, that when the song was written and sung, it was almost always the boy or man who paid for the date. If the girl's father was rich, then the guy would spend money on her. If her father wasn't rich, then he didn't need to spend money. He'd court the rich girl and have fun with the poor girl, in other words. Back when I was dating, it was pretty well known that a guy could drive over to the poor part of town and be able to pick a girl who'd probably fuck with no strings attached. Oh, not all the girls in the bad neighborhoods would do it, but a lot of them would, especially if there was alcohol or drugs involved. The song says it's OK to treat women differently based on whether or not they come from a rich or poor family.

Yeah, if the girl's father is rich, she's worthy of being taken out and shown respect. If her daddy's poor, you can do whatever you want with her, she doesn't deserve to be taken to dinner or anything, she's just a cheap fuck.

Wow, that is quite a stretch. I think you've over-thought that one a bit there, Lynn.

What is interesting to me is that I actually like almost all the songs mentioned in this thread, and the lyrics do not change that.

Maybe I'm just an innocent, but I think it's interesting that everyone apparently thinks that "do what you feel" means "fuck like jaded monkeys." To me, it meant that since you didn't have any money, you'd have to do something that didn't, you know, cost money. Didn't any of you guys ever go on a date when you were broke?

I think a lot of the implications lie in "take her out for a meal", which suggests the singer will be picking up the tab himself--generally if you are taking someone else out, you are going to be paying, yeah? So the singer could afford to buy the poor girl a meal if he wanted to, but he doesn't feel the need to do that. And if he could buy her a meal but instead just wants to do what he feels...well.

Looking at the rest of the lyrics, though, I think the more innocent interpretation might be preferred. Since they're pretty much unintelligible, though, it's not surprising that many people (including myself) assumed he'd fuck his date like a jaded monkey if he didn't need to impress her daddy.

Edit: Ninja'ed by Lynn. Should've previewed, but I'm new to posting. Be gentle? But I don't think she's stretching or overreading at all; what she describes is a pretty well-known cultural convention, I'd thought, and is exactly what I'd always assumed whenever I heard the song. It can hardly be a stretch if it's the first thing that comes to mind.

But I don't think she's stretching or overreading at all; what she describes is a pretty well-known cultural convention, I'd thought, and is exactly what I'd always assumed whenever I heard the song. It can hardly be a stretch if it's the first thing that comes to mind.

It MIGHT be a generational thing. This song came out in 1970, and that's when I heard it. And just about all the kids in my age group assumed that a girl with a poor father would be an easy, cheap screw, and that's how they interpreted the song. The guy always chose what sort of date it would be, unless the girl requested something special, and girls were cautioned to be considerate of their dates' wallets. So, a guy could choose to take his date to a fancy restaurant (and going out to eat was a much bigger thing then) or he could choose to just go riding around (and gas was much cheaper then, and cruising was pretty common among teens).

I love Spirit in the Sky! I sing along, loudly, every time I hear it: "I never been a sinner, I never sinned... I got a friend in Jesuuuus!!"
Even though, you know, I have and I don't. It's still a kick-ass song.

Speaking of In the Summertime, which I also love, how about telling everybody to "Have a drink, have a drive"? Nice.

It took me lo 20 years or so (yes I can be slow on the uptake on some things), but REM's "Man on the Moon" apparently implies that a faked moon landing would be more "cool" than the real one (which was indeed the coolest event of my lifetime). Now perhaps I am taking the lyrics too literally (this is Michael Stipe we're talking about, after all), but I can no longer listen to it without it seriously bugging me.

It took me lo 20 years or so (yes I can be slow on the uptake on some things), but REM's "Man on the Moon" apparently implies that a faked moon landing would be more "cool" than the real one (which was indeed the coolest event of my lifetime). Now perhaps I am taking the lyrics too literally (this is Michael Stipe we're talking about, after all), but I can no longer listen to it without it seriously bugging me.

He also makes some uncited claims about Mott the Hoople playing the board game Life. Seriously, it's a mistake to read his lyrics that literally and he definitely does not say a faked moon landing would be cooler than the real one.

A local radio station always plays just the first verse and my 5 year-old son liked it:

I was walkin' down the street on a sunny day
hubba hubba hubba hubba hubba
Feelin' in my bones that I'll have my way
hubba hubba hubba hubba hubba
Chorus:
Well, I'm a happy boy (happy boy)

So I downloaded the full version. The rest of the song is about how the guys dog got hit by a car, he put the dead dog in a drawer, forgot about it for a month, then when he found it again laughed about it.

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